Convertible garment of pile material



Jan. 30, 1962 w. scHULER CONVERTIBLE GARMENT oF PILE MATERIAL Filed June '5. 1958 INVENTOR Werner Sahuler BY ,dnd// ATTORNEYS tats tent 3,@ l S,id Patented Jan. 3G, i962 ine Garments of fabric are known which can be worn as overcoats or as jackets or blouses. The convertibility is achieved thereby that the parts of the garment can be separated, e.g., by slide fasteners, whereby the parts are easily connected in case of need. These known garments are either garments for centain practical uses, where appearance is not important, or the joints are covered by fashionable accessories such as belts strips, etc. so that they are concealed. It has not been possible before, however, to enable a division of garments by slide fasteners etc., which are invisible without fashionable accessories.

It is an object of the invention -to provide fur garments which can be converted or modified, particularly for use by ladies, and in which an invisible division is achieved by utilizing the properties of the furs.

Thus, it is a main object of the invention to provide without fashionable accessories such as belts etc. a fur coat in which preferably curled fur or the like is used and which enables the wearer of such coat to use the garment as an overcoat or, after removal of one or more parts, as a paletot or as a jacket or as an overcoat, paletot and jacket. This affords the advantage that the wearer can adapt the garment to the weather by measures which she can perform immediately by herself. This has great advantages par-ticularly when travelling. This construction must be such, in any case, that the convertibility of the garment is not apparent or can be detected only with difficulty from the outside and inside when the garment is worn, even where the joint extends through straight parts. This imposes certain requirements upon the construction and the working of such fur garment because skins do not have a uniform structure, particularly as regards the leather, and tend to change when worn, eg. by bulging or wraping.

This invention provides a convertible garment of fur, particularly a fur coat for ladies, or the like, which consists suitably of curled fur or the like. T he essential feature resides in that the garment, considered in its length, consists of two or more parts, which can be held together from the rear by mechanical means such as slide fasteners which can be quickly closed and separated. When curled skins are divided into two parts by a cut and the two parts are then arranged to adjoin at the edges, the joint will not be visible. It is'a basic idea of the invention to separate fur sections exactly like a skin and then to join the separated fur sections in like manner and to give them the appearance of a unit from the outside in spite of the fact that they can be separated and re-united by a slide fastener and the like.

Many difiiculties must be overcome to achieve this, particularly because consideration must be given to the structure of the skins. The fur sections must meet in a plane; they must form a surface of equal smoothness and the stiffness of the slide fastener must also be considered so as to avoid it from becoming apparent on the outside.

'The first difficulty resides in that the metal parts of the slide fastener, which is preferably disposed below the edge of the upper section, will tend to urge the edge of this section outwardly, whereby the joint becomes visible.

According to the invention the raised portion of the metal parts or closing parts of a slide fastener is disposed on the leather side of the skins in a groove, which prevents these parts of the fastener from urging the skin sections toward the outside, whereby the joint would become visihle on the outside. To this end the fabric parts of the slide fastener are not sewn directly to the leather or the piqu j fabric of the skins but one or more fabric strips are placed below these fabric parts so that they are spaced from the leather side of the fur sections to which they are sewn. In this case the metal part of the slide fastener is emheded between the raised portions and does no longer urge the edges of the fur sections outwardly. Depending to the elevation of the metal parts of the slide fastener the underlaying must be greater or smaller. The elevation may be entirely or partly eliminated if the slide fastener has an elevation only on one side, i.e., when the teeth and slider protrude only on one side and the side of the slider which lies in a plane with the fabric parts of the slide fastener faces the leather side of the skins. Slide fasteners with metal or plastic links or the like can be used.

In a development of the invention the cut edge of the two fur sections must be maintained as sharply as possible because otherwise an exact joining of the fur sections at the cut edges will not give the desired invisible joint. This is achieved according to the invention by bordering the edges only with thin leather or silk. Moreover, a unil. form structure of the fur sections and their adaptation to the nature of the slide fastener is achieved in that the sections are covered near the edge or as far as to the edge in a greater or smaller width with the lining material.

In order to avoid the fur sections from falling in below or above the stiffening slide fastener, fabric strips opposing the falling in of the fur sections are applied according to the invention at a certain distance from the edge, in addition to the lining material. It is desirable to have the various textile coverings underlap each other toward the -slide fastener so that one cover strip etc. lies under a part of the next following one. More or fewer textile coverings may be used according to the invention, as may be required to conceal the divisibility of the overcoat from the outside. lInstead of the lining material coverings, etc. the leather may be stiifened by a chemical treatment, an application of rice starch or the like so that the leather is given a certain structural strength above and below the slide fastener and will not fall in above and below the seams of the slide fastener.

As has been mentioned hereinbefore, the slide fasteners or the like which are on the rear of the two sections or, in the case of more than two sections, on each edge of the sections, or the parts of such slide fasteners, are connected to the sections of the garment so as to leave a .clearance which forms a groove for the links and the side and according to another feature of the invention the slide fastener is covered on the inside by the lining. The edge on the edge portion of the lining of the upper part of the garment is placed over the lining of the lower section; the latter lining is upwardly extended below the upper lining. The protruding portion of the lower lining, which extends below the loosely held lining of the upper section, is detachably secured by snap fasteners, slide fasteners, etc. to the leather side of the upper section.

In connection with the above-mentioned provision and arrangement of the invention it is of essential importance for the purpose of the invention that the two edges of the adjoining sections of the fur garment are bordered with a thin strip of leather or textiles whereas the fur itself is not bent over. Thus, a smooth surface is obtained in said groove so that the slide fastener will not draw in the hair of the fur and will find a smooth bearing surface. It may be repeated that the textile coverings on the inside provide for a certain stiffness and smoothness of the leather of the skin on the inside.

The invention includes not only garments of natural furs of the type described but also fabrics, plastics having a curled furlike hair structure, provided that the same object is achieved.

The drawing shows diagrammatically and by way of example an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. l is a longitudinal sectional view taken between the upper and lower sections of a garment of curled furs, and

FIG. 2 shows this garment also in a sectional view illustrating the arrangement of the lining disposed on the inside of the garment on both sections or on two sections.

The remarks made `with reference to the drawing in connection with a bipartite overcoat for ladies, which consists of curled furs and is divided in length, apply also to a tripartite garment of this kind, which can then be worn as an overcoat, a paletot or jacket.

In the drawing, 1 designates the upper fur section, which may be a fur garment for ladies. This is not shown.

2 is the lower section. Both sections meet at 3 in the peripheral direction of the fur garment. The two sections consist of curled fur having hair 4. The edges 5 and 6 are as smooth as possible and are only bordered with leather or silk strips 5b and are bent over at the extreme edge. For this reason the edges of the hair facing each other correspond almost exactly to the cut where the furs are divided. This is essential or advantageous for concealing the joint.

7 is the lining material covering, which extends preferably almost to the edges 5 and 6. The application of the lining material covering is effected in known manner.

The slide fastener is divisible in known manner and comprises the rows of links 12 and 13 attached to the fabric straps 14 and 15. 16 is the slider.

The fabric strap 15 of the lower section 2 is upwardly offset so that the slide fastener lies above the joint. Fabric cove-rings 17 and 18 sewn to the fabric straps 14 and 15 are arranged to leave between the latter a groove, in which the slide fastener with its metal parts is disposed, so that the fur cannot be urged outwardly. The fabric coverings 17 and 18 may be formed by several superimposed lining material strips.

9 is a thicker textile strip, which extends partly below the covering 18 in order to avoid the `fur section from breaking in at this point. 8 is a wool strip, which may be sewn next to the covering 17, for the same purpose.

According to FIG. 2, the tirst inner lining 20 of the lower or first section forms a flap which extends above the joint and covers the slide fastener and which is provided with snap fasteners 21, which can be connected at 22 with the mating parts of the snap fasteners. The lower edge portion 24 of the second inner lining 25 of the upper or second section 1 of the garment falls loosely over the lining 20.

Lining 7, strip 17 and the section of strip 18 nearest the fastener 16 constitute means which space the tapes 14, 15 of the fastener from the back faces of the sections 1 and 2. The opposed edges of the facing means on opposite sides of the slit 3 are spaced apart to provide groove 19. Strips 5b, when used, also form a part of the spacing means. Lining 7 and strip 18 have portions extending further away from the groove 19 than the tapes 14, 15, and layers 8 and 9 overlap these extending portions.

By reason of the stepwise arrangement of the inner exposed faces of tapes 14, 15, strips 8, 9 and 18 and lining 7, the combined thickness of the tapes and spacing means decreases progressively at progressively greater distances from groove 19.

l claim:

l. yA garment which comprises, in combination, at least two sections of material having a pile on one side and having adjacent edges forming a joint, the said pile extending to the said edges and engaging across the joint, and spacing means carried by both said sections on the side opposite the pile near said adjacent edges of the material, the facingl edges of said spacing means on the two sections being spaced apart to provide a rearwardly opening groove therebetween, the edges of said groove being positioned one on each side of the joint, and a separable fastener having tapes overlying said spacing means on the side opposite the sections and secured thereto and having interengaging fastener elements carried by said tapes, the width of the groove being at least as great as the width of the fastener elements and the fastener elements coinciding with the groove.

2. In a garment as claimed in claim 1, said spacing means extending away from the adjacent edges beyond the tapes and the `combined spacing means and tapes being of progressively diminishing thickness at progressively greater distances from the groove.

3. In a garment as claimed in claim 1, a rst inner lining on the side of a first of said sections opposite to said pile and overlying the side of said slide fastener opposite from the pile, fastening means detachably fastening said rst inner lining to the second of said sections at a point further from the groove than said slide fastener, and a second inner lining attached to said second section and having a loose marginal portion overlying said fastening means on the side thereof opposite the pile.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,884,159 Orent Oct. 25, 1932 2,198,577 Graham Apr. 23, 1940 2,639,432 Kaplan May 26, 1953 

